Human Rights Watch: L.A. County has U.S.'s largest rape kit backlog

Los Angeles County has the largest rape kit backlog in the United States, according to a report released today by Human Rights Watch.

More than 50 reporters, rape kit advocates, city workers and cops gathered today at a 40-minute press conference outside Los Angeles City Hall to hear the bleak news. The report, "Testing Justice: The Rape Kit Backlog in Los Angeles City and County," revealed that there are more than 12,000 untested rape kits sitting in crime lab storage facilities in cities across the county.

Sarah Tofte of Human Rights Watch

"We know a lot about the numbers but we don't know a lot about the stories - the women," said Sarah Tofte, a Human Rights Watch researcher who authored the 68-page study. "Those kits represent someone's decision to come forward."

Those women trusted "that their rapist would be brought to justice," she said.

The report also found that 1,218 of the untested rape kits were from

unsolved cases in which the attacker was a stranger. And 499 kits were

attached to cases where the 10-year statute of limitations for rape had

passed.

Sadly, the number of kits continued to grow yearly even though the

Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff

Department received millions of dollars in federal funds to reduce the